28-th of January Armenia is celebrating Army Day. This year marks the 26th anniversary of the Armenian Armed Forces.

In September 1990, the Supreme Council of Armenia adopted a decision on forming a Special Regiment within the Internal Affairs Ministry of the time; and with the government’s decision, the Committee of Defense was formed on May 4, 1991.

On January 28, 1992, the Government of Armenia adopted the decision On the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, and this became the beginning for the formation of the Armenian Armed Forces.

And on September 25, 2002, the National Assembly made an amendment in the Law on Holidays and Memorial Days, whereby Army Day became a non-working day in Armenia.

The first phase for the formation of the Armenian army, however, is considered to be from 1988 to 1992, when there was a challenge of ensuring the safety of the people of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh); at the time, volunteer detachments were carrying out this task.

The Temple of Garni is the only standing Greco-Roman colonnaded building in Armenia. A Ionic temple located in the village of Garni, Armenia, it is the best-known structure and symbol of pre-Christian Armenia.

The structure was probably built by king Tiridates I in the first century AD as a temple to the sun god Mihr. After Armenia's conversion to Christianity in the early fourth century, it was converted into a royal summer house of Khosrovidukht, the sister of Tiridates III. According to some scholars it was not a temple but a tomb and thus survived the universal destruction of pagan structures. It collapsed in a 1679 earthquake. Renewed interest in the 19th century led to excavations at the site in early and mid-20th century and its eventual reconstruction between 1969 and 1975. It is one of the main tourist attractions in Armenia and the central shrine of Armenian neopaganism.

The temple is at the edge of a triangular cliff which overlooks the ravine of the Azat River and the Gegham mountains. It is part of the fortress of Garni.One of the oldest fortresses in Armenia, it is mentioned as Gorneas in the first-century Annals of Tacitus. The fortress was strategically significant for the defense of the major cities in the Ararat plain. The site is in the village of Garni, in Armenia's Kotayk Province and includes the temple, a Roman bath with a partly preserved mosaic floor with a Greek inscription, a royal summer palace, the seventh century church of St. Sion and other minor items.

The precise construction date of the temple is unknown and is subject to debate. The dominant view is that it was built in 77 AD, during the reign of king Tiridates I of Armenia.The date is calculated based on a Greek inscription, discovered by artist Martiros Saryan in 1945 in the fortress wall, which names Tiridates the Sun (Helios) as the founder of the temple.

Kochari is an Armenian folk dance, danced today by Armenians, Assyrians, Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Pontic Greeks and Turks. It is a form of circle dance.Kochari is a type of dance, not a specific dance. Each region in the Armenian Highlands had its own Kochari, with its unique way of both dancing and music.[One type of "Yalli", a dance common to Azerbaijanis, Assyrians, and Kurds has different forms known as Kochari.In Armenian, Kochari literally means "knee-come". Koch means "knee" and ari means "come".Armenians have been dancing Kochari for over a thousand years. Dancers form a closed circle, putting their hands on each other's shoulders.The dance is danced by both men and women and is intended to be intimidating. More modern forms of Kochari have added a "tremolo step," which involves shaking the whole body. It spread to the eastern part of Armenia after the Armenian Genocide.